On the field and off, a contest
Some unexpected drama, for the middle of a week. The Loney Bowl was contested, this afternoon, down in Wolfville. In one of those “good to the last drop” finishes, Acadia bested Saint Marys by the score of 45-38 in overtime. But did they? Is it really over?
The back story is what turns an ordinary university game into a drama that has been ongoing for days now. Last year, SMU allowed a player onto their roster who came with a history. He had tried out for a pro team! CFL, but that’s a technicality. The rules say that a player must wait for a year after tasting the forbidden fruit of trying to get a career out of a pastime. If the kid had been anything but a first class athlete, the story would have gone away. Alas, he was also really good; after a couple of losses, the competition protested. Is a year a year or is it an academic year?
SMU forfeited some games, but at the end of the season, they were still good enough to qualify for the playoffs. In a surprise move, the sports organization responsible for such things cancelled the playoff game and awarded the conference trophy to Acadia.
More drama, and after some decisions (plural), the case made it all the way to the provincial Supreme Court, where the judge decided that this would be too good a game to not be played. And so it was. This afternoon. SMU didn’t win, but the question remains. Does this go to another level of arbitration? Does the Supreme Court of Canada handle cases involving the college football rule book (a real brick of a book!)
Time is short, given that the winner of today’s game has to compete in another game against the Ontario trophy winner (told you this was complicated) on Saturday. Not much down time. Dangerous for the health of the players, etc. But so it shall be (unless…)
I’ve been following this on Twitter, again. The play-by-play is missing, but the play-by-match continues to hold me enthralled.
